Tillamook Has 2 New Limited Edition Ice Cream Flavors—I'm Stocking Up

Visiting Tillamook Creamery last year was a holy pilgrimage for me, a devoted cheese lover. I got answers to all my curd-curious questions about how the cheese is made from the experts on the Tillamook team.

I knew I’d be learning about (and eating a lot of) cheese, but I didn’t realize how prominently ice cream would star on the tour. I dare say my ice cream tasting experience at the creamery may have stolen the show. And now the folks behind my all-time favorite ice cream sandwiches have released two new limited edition ice cream offerings—Salty Caramel Pretzel and Apple Crisp—just in time for summer.

Tillamook's New Ice Cream Lineup

Tillamook’s Salty Caramel Pretzel ice cream is what happens when you take my dreams and blend them up with premium vanilla ice cream. All of the essentials are there—sweet ribbons of caramel amplified with just a hint of salt and magically still-crunchy pretzels enrobed in chocolate.

The ice cream is a study in sweet and salty balance. There’s just enough of the pretzel pieces to keep my spoon digging until—oops—we hit cardboard! I know they’re calling this a "limited edition" flavor, but I hope it sticks around forever. (A girl can dream. After all, it happened with T’mook’s Orange & Cream and Campfire Peanut Butter Cup flavors.)

In the Apple Crisp flavor, Tillamook has managed to do something I’ve never seen before: They really, truly nail apple flavor in ice cream. Apples are notoriously difficult to capture in ice cream format, and you don’t see many attempts on grocery store shelves. But Tillamook has an R&D team, and they R’ed and D’ed until the impossible was made possible. The result has the familiar flavor of a classic apple pie with a hint of cinnamon and brown sugar and crispy little bits of oatmeal streusel.

“To create the Apple Crisp flavor, we used a recipe from my mother as a base to help us translate apple crisp into ice cream,” Hunter Clayton, Senior R&D Associate Scientist, TCCA, said in a press release. “We all know the smell and unforgettable taste of a warm apple crisp, and what better way to tap into that nostalgia than a homemade recipe.” The result tastes like the exact moment when you’re eating apple pie a la mode (the only way!), and everything marries together in one magical, perfect bite. 

I’m not sure how long these limited edition flavors will be in stores, but I know I’ll be keeping a few gallons stocked in my freezer all summer long.